By Staff
Everybody up in Leland is so shocked about the "Naked Gardeners" calendar that they bought a pile of them to make sure.
The first 500, at $20 each, sold out since July 1, forcing a second printing.
As an attention-getting way to raise funds, the 12 provocatively-posed northwest Michigan men behind carefully-placed props is in the same spirit as the tanned farmers going to bat for Cass County Conservation District at the upcoming county fair in Cassopolis.
I have faith in our local denizens keeping cool compared to up north, where the lighthearted 2006 calendar is coming under fire.
It isn't affiliated with Leland Public Schools, but that seems to be the snag, that Superintendent Michael Hartigan participated.
My last trip to the fairgrounds I saw our superintendent in a dress, teetering on high heels and flipping his long red wig out of his eyes and away from his mustache to benefit the American Cancer Society Relay for Life, so I don't think a few hoes or watering cans would faze me.
But a bristling Glen Lake parent, Janice Blackburn, demanded to know, "Is this an appropriate role model for our children? I think he crossed the line. The public perception is that it's associated with the school."
The calendar police will only succeed at fanning curiosity and attracting more attention, much in the same way I had never seen "Married with Children" until Terry Rakolta's hysterical campaign to stamp out the anti-Cosby enticed me into checking out an episode.
Naughty Whorehouse Days was similarly poised for success up in Minnesota until the City Council pulled its plug.
Now it's reaping more negative attention than if they had gone ahead with the eyebrow-elevating festival.
The school gardens sold bulbs and smelt dinners with limited success, then they remembered how well sex sells - even if it's merely a titillating tease.
Volunteer Dee Glass and designer Tracy Brookfield meant to jack a few eyebrows.
I would find it odder if a superintendent of schools declined to support a fundraising effort to benefit gardens that serve as an outdoor classroom and feature native Michigan plants.
To his credit, Hartigan still has no qualms about taking part in a project he at least realizes is "tongue in cheek."
The cover features floral scenes.
A note inside underscores that the school district did not endorse the project.
Local merchants display the calendars so the curious can't thumb through the novelty without purchasing one.
Lighten up, people!
Quips, quotes and qulunkers: "The Beatles were my first love. My friend's oldest brother was kicked out of his house, and his parents put all of his stuff in the basement, where it was getting destroyed by flood waters. He had about 15 Beatles records. So I stole the whole stack - lovingly put paper towels between each of them. For over a year I listened to nothing but the Beatles. It was my music school."
A Ramones comic book!: That's what you get with Rhino Record's four-disc box set, "Weird Tales of the Ramones."
6.9 million: That's how many copies of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" sold in the United States in its first 24 hours.
That's an average of better than a quarter of a million sales per hour, smashing the record set by the previous Potter release.
The fifth installment, 2003's "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," moved 5 million copies in its first 24 hours.
Scholastic boosted the print run for "Half-Blood Prince" from 10.8 million to 13.5 million.
I have my copy and will be diving it into this week.
Obits: Karl Mueller, Soul Asylum bassist, 41, died from throat cancer June 17 at his Minneapolis home.
Mueller met singer Dave Pirner and guitarist Dan Murphy when the three were Minnesota teens in 1981.
They released "Runaway Train" in 1992 from the multi-platinum album "Grave Dancers Union" and it reached the top five.
Gerry Thomas, 83, credited with inventing TV dinners, died in Arizona July 18.
He was a salesman for the Omaha, Neb.-based C.A. Swanson and Sons in 1954 when he got the idea to package frozen meals in a three-compartment tray like he had in his mess kit during five years in the service.
He got a $1,000 bonus and a raise to $300 a month for his ingenuity, since 10 million sales rang up in the first year of national distribution with that classic Swanson TV Dinner - turkey with corn bread dressing and gravy, sweet potatoes and buttered peas for about $1.
Campbell Soup Co. acquired Swanson in 1955.